Oss

Reports of the presence of Jews in Oss date to medieval times.
It was not until the mid-eighteenth century, however, that an
actual Jewish community took shape in the town. During the
eighteenth century, Oss maintained a relatively tolerant policy
toward the admission of Jews and even granted citizenship to a
number of its Jewish residents.

Jews gathered for prayer in private homes in Oss beginning in 1764.
In 1800, a building on the Varkensmarkt was rented to house a
synagogue. This ramshackle synagogue was replaced with a new
building, located on the Koornstraat, in 1831. During the 1880's,
the Koornstraat synagogue was enlarged to include a school and
community offices. The synagogue remained the center of Jewish life
in Oss until the Second World War.

Jewish
community officials in Oss included the members of the community
directorate and a treasurer for the collection and disbursement of
donations to the Jewish community in Eretz Israel. Jewish voluntary
organizations included fellowships for the study of Torah, Mishnah,
and Talmud; a burial society; a society providing care to the
infirm; and a society for the upkeep of the synagogue. In later
years, a theater society and a society for aiding and housing
refugees were formed.

The oldest cemetery used by the Jewish community at Oss was located
in nearby Geffen; it remained in use until 1909. A second cemetery
was opened on the Heescheweg near Oss in 1888.

The
Jews of Oss made important contributions to the emergence of the
town as a manufacturing center as well as to the industrialization
of the Netherlands. Well known companies established at Oss by Jews
included the margarine factory of Simon Van Den Bergh, the
forerunner of the present-day multinational Unilever; the meat
processing company Zwanenberg, the forerunner of present-day
international pharmaceutical giant Organon; the meat processing
company of Hartog Hartog, which eventually grew to become UNOX; and
the Bergoss textile factory.

During the first decades of the twentieth century, members of
several leading local Jewish families served on the town council of
Oss. During the 1930's, the Jewish community of Oss provided
material and moral support to Jewish refugees arriving in the
Netherlands from Germany. Zionist youth organizations were also
active in Oss at the time.

At the outset of the German occupation of the Netherlands during
the Second World War, Organon shifted its ownership to abroad and
avoided confiscation. In the autumn of 1941, Jewish children were
barred from public education and a regional Jewish school was
established. The school remained open until February of 1943,
despite declining enrollment due to the deportation of Jews to
their death.

Most of the Jews of Oss were deported between August, 1942 and
April, 1943. In June, 1944, just months before the liberation of
the southern provinces of the Netherlands, a last group of elderly
and infirm Jews was deported from Oss. Only a small number of the
Jews of Oss deported during the war survived. A few local Jews also
managed to come through the war in hiding. The synagogue and other
buildings belonging to the Jewish community at Oss were plundered
and heavily damaged by the Germans.

Although it was not possible to restore the synagogue after the
war, its façade was preserved and declared a municipal monument.
Later, a new synagogue on the Smalstraat was constructed and
inaugurated in 1959. In 1960, a monument was unveiled on the Nieuwe
Heescheweg in memory of the more than 300 Jews of Oss murdered by
the Germans. Today, Oss is home to a small Jewish community. A
branch of the Nederlandse Zionisten Bond (Union of Dutch Zionists)
is active in the town. The Jewish cemetery is maintained by the
local authorities.